Original artwork, not a still
Parable of the Sower · 1993
All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
It's a philosophy that fits on a postcard: you cannot stand outside change, so shape it. Butler's verses have outlived the novel, quoted by readers and organizers as a counterweight to despair. The last sentence, 'God is Change', is the shortest creed in modern science fiction.
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In context
Spoilers for Parable of the SowerShow the scene
The lines are one of the verses of Earthseed, the religion that Lauren Olamina invents in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower. The novel, a journal beginning in 2024, follows Lauren as her walled California neighbourhood falls apart and she walks north with other survivors, writing down the verses she calls Earthseed: The Books of the Living. The central idea is that God is Change, which people can shape through what they do. Butler's novel appeared in 1993.
Sources (1)
- Parable of the Sower (novel) (Wikipedia)whole pageReference checked
Context reviewed